ETHICS ALARMS

Well, I expected this one: Jim Hodgson, a frequent commenter, has an extensive background in law enforcement.Ethics Alarms is fortunate to have the benefit of his perspective, and I am grateful for it. Here is his Comment of the Day on the post, “The Ethics Dilemma That Has No Solution: We Can’t Trust Police, But We Have To”:. The scope of thought provoked by this post could fill volumes. THE UNETHICAL $27 MILLION GEORGE FLOYD SETTLEMENT The family pledged to donate $500,000 of its haul to “lift up” the neighborhood around 38th Street and Chicago Avenue, where the police arrested Floyd on May 25, 2020 for passing a counterfeit bill. (Let’s see: $27 million minus 40% for Crump off the top, minus another $500,000my five year estimate may have been optimistic.) ETHICS HERO: CHICAGO TRIBUNE REPORTER GREGORY PRATT Ethics Hero: Chicago Tribune Reporter Gregory Pratt. May 19, 2021 / Jack Marshall. This was a pleasant surprise. Right before taking Spuds out for his afternoon jaunt, I read the jaw-dropping story that Chicago’s Democratic Mayor Lori Lightfoot had announced via a spokewoman that she would now grant interviews only to “journalists

of color.”.

INCOMPETENT ELECTED OFFICIAL OF THE MONTH: REPRESENTATIVE Representative Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.) demonstrated once again that a critical mass of conservative Republicans just can’t stop themselves from embodying the worst stereotypes imprinted on the public by progressives and the news media. He actually said that some videos of the January 6 riot at the Capitol looked like scenes from a “normal

tourist visit.”

MORE AMERICAN IDOL ETHICS: ARE THE FANS OF THE SHOW REALLY I don’t know how the local news in your area is, but here in Houston, it is awful. I prefer watching paint dry. The local stories are a tiger wandering around a Northwest Houston neighborhood, apparently spirited away by some idiot out on bail for allegedly whacking his girlfriend; a grieving family whose mother was found dead in a local pond after having gone missing two months ago, and OBSERVATIONS ON THE U.S. SUPREME COURT “FINAL FOUR” FOR The indispensible and, as far as I can discern, scrupulously non-partisan and objective Supreme Court analysis site SCOTUSBLOG, has, in a rare display of frivolousness, created a “bracket” quest for its readers to decide on the “the greatest Supreme Court justice” of all time.. The contest is now down to the “Final Four,” as a parody of the NCAA tournament that I somehow manage to “NIPPLEGATE” REVISITED Viacom, CBS’ parent company, received the maximum fine the FCC could issue for such offenses, and paid $3.5 million to settle indecency complaints about the broadcast. Ethics Alarms has featured two reflections on that incident. One was a rebuttal, an easy one, of pop culture pundit Emmanuel Hapsis’s ridiculous analysis, declaring the WORKPLACE ETHICS: 62 THINGS THAT ARE LEGAL, BUT 22 OF THEM Favoritism is legal, just unfair, damaging to morale,irresponsible and stupid—another watermark of poor managers and leaders. It’s legal—but still unethical— for your boss to ask you to pick up his lunch, even though it’s not in your job description. This is an abuse of power, unless there is a valid work-related reason other than

the

VICTIM, WEENIE AND ENABLER: THE PERSECUTION OF PROF. JASON University of Illinois law professor Jason Kilborn used a hypothetical about a employment discrimination case for his final exam. The exam referred to the use of racist and sexist rhetoric such as “n——” and “b—-“. The same question has been on the exam for ten years, but with compelled speech and the the enforced

conformity with

THE UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA CHEATING SCANDAL IRONY I don't think Richard Quinn's outraged lecture showed courage; I think it showed some nerve. He took a short cut, and didn't do the original work his job required. He carelessly used questions he should have known could be found and accessed in advance of the test. He misinformed his students about what questions would

ETHICS ALARMS

Well, I expected this one: Jim Hodgson, a frequent commenter, has an extensive background in law enforcement.Ethics Alarms is fortunate to have the benefit of his perspective, and I am grateful for it. Here is his Comment of the Day on the post, “The Ethics Dilemma That Has No Solution: We Can’t Trust Police, But We Have To”:. The scope of thought provoked by this post could fill volumes. THE UNETHICAL $27 MILLION GEORGE FLOYD SETTLEMENT The family pledged to donate $500,000 of its haul to “lift up” the neighborhood around 38th Street and Chicago Avenue, where the police arrested Floyd on May 25, 2020 for passing a counterfeit bill. (Let’s see: $27 million minus 40% for Crump off the top, minus another $500,000my five year estimate may have been optimistic.) ETHICS HERO: CHICAGO TRIBUNE REPORTER GREGORY PRATT Ethics Hero: Chicago Tribune Reporter Gregory Pratt. May 19, 2021 / Jack Marshall. This was a pleasant surprise. Right before taking Spuds out for his afternoon jaunt, I read the jaw-dropping story that Chicago’s Democratic Mayor Lori Lightfoot had announced via a spokewoman that she would now grant interviews only to “journalists

of color.”.

INCOMPETENT ELECTED OFFICIAL OF THE MONTH: REPRESENTATIVE Representative Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.) demonstrated once again that a critical mass of conservative Republicans just can’t stop themselves from embodying the worst stereotypes imprinted on the public by progressives and the news media. He actually said that some videos of the January 6 riot at the Capitol looked like scenes from a “normal

tourist visit.”

MORE AMERICAN IDOL ETHICS: ARE THE FANS OF THE SHOW REALLY I don’t know how the local news in your area is, but here in Houston, it is awful. I prefer watching paint dry. The local stories are a tiger wandering around a Northwest Houston neighborhood, apparently spirited away by some idiot out on bail for allegedly whacking his girlfriend; a grieving family whose mother was found dead in a local pond after having gone missing two months ago, and OBSERVATIONS ON THE U.S. SUPREME COURT “FINAL FOUR” FOR The indispensible and, as far as I can discern, scrupulously non-partisan and objective Supreme Court analysis site SCOTUSBLOG, has, in a rare display of frivolousness, created a “bracket” quest for its readers to decide on the “the greatest Supreme Court justice” of all time.. The contest is now down to the “Final Four,” as a parody of the NCAA tournament that I somehow manage to “NIPPLEGATE” REVISITED Viacom, CBS’ parent company, received the maximum fine the FCC could issue for such offenses, and paid $3.5 million to settle indecency complaints about the broadcast. Ethics Alarms has featured two reflections on that incident. One was a rebuttal, an easy one, of pop culture pundit Emmanuel Hapsis’s ridiculous analysis, declaring the WORKPLACE ETHICS: 62 THINGS THAT ARE LEGAL, BUT 22 OF THEM Favoritism is legal, just unfair, damaging to morale,irresponsible and stupid—another watermark of poor managers and leaders. It’s legal—but still unethical— for your boss to ask you to pick up his lunch, even though it’s not in your job description. This is an abuse of power, unless there is a valid work-related reason other than

the

VICTIM, WEENIE AND ENABLER: THE PERSECUTION OF PROF. JASON University of Illinois law professor Jason Kilborn used a hypothetical about a employment discrimination case for his final exam. The exam referred to the use of racist and sexist rhetoric such as “n——” and “b—-“. The same question has been on the exam for ten years, but with compelled speech and the the enforced

conformity with

THE UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA CHEATING SCANDAL IRONY I don't think Richard Quinn's outraged lecture showed courage; I think it showed some nerve. He took a short cut, and didn't do the original work his job required. He carelessly used questions he should have known could be found and accessed in advance of the test. He misinformed his students about what questions would MORE ON THE ANDREW YANG “RACIST” CARTOON: SOME PERSPECTIVE In contrast to the political cartoon discussed in the previous post, THIS is a racist cartoon. Below is the Ethics Alarms post from 2014 titled, “9 Observations On The Boston Herald’s ‘Racist’ Cartoon”: 1. I’m adding this new #1 right at the beginning—there were originally only 8 observations—because some of the early comments suggest that I over-estimated some of my JUDGING A WEBSITE BY ITS COMMENTERS The comments on leftist websites—-yes, I include the Washington Post and the New York Times—often make me reconsider my criticism of Michael Savage’s best selling book title, “Liberalism is a Mental

Disorder.”

DEAD ETHICS ALARMS TALES: THE COTTON-PICKING ASSIGNMENT How brain-dead and ethically inert does a teacher have to be to give two black students an assignment to pick cotton? The mind boggles, but this really happened, and at the cringingly politically correctly-named Sacajawea Middle School in Spokane Washington no less. THE ETHICS DILEMMA THAT HAS NO SOLUTION: WE CAN’T TRUST A Netflix documentary that debuted last year crystallized my conclusions about the current attack on police, policing, and the justice system as a part of “white supremacy,” and the so far successful effort by Black Lives Matter and its allies among progressives and the Democratic Party to unravel the core values of

American society.

ETHICS HERO: PRIVATE SCHOOL TEACHER DANA STANGEL-PLOWE Dana Stangel-Plowe, a teacher at the Dwight-Englewood School in Bergen County, New Jersey, resigned from the private school in a damning resignation letter subsequently published by the Foundation Against Intolerance & Racism. FAIR is an organization created to oppose the teaching of Critical Race Theory teachings in schools. MORNING ETHICS WARM-UP, 6/7/2021: “THE MASKS COME OFF AT Last night, when I had to run an errand to our local 7-11, I realized a milestone had been reached: the “Please wear a mask” signs were down outside and I could see the clerk’s face for the first time in

over a year.

CASTING ETHICS: “ANNE BOLEYN” AND DISCRIMINATORY DOUBLE That’s Anne Boleyn on the photo above. No, really, it is. Well, okay, it’s really British actress Jodie Turner-Smith portraying King Henry the VIII’s doomed FRIDAY ALREADY? WELL, IT’S TIME FOR THE ETHICS ALARMS OPEN ←Ethics Villains: The Boston Globe Editorial Board. Leave a Reply Cancel reply. Enter your comment here DEAR RED SOX: THAT WAS AN UNETHICAL BANNER, BUT YOU ASKED During yesterday’s late afternoon game Red Sox game against the Miami Marlins in Fenway Park, some fans unfurled a huge “Trump won — Save America” banner over the centerfield wall during the fourth inning. The banner was confiscated and the fans ejected from the game. I CAN’T LET THIS PASS: CNN REINSTATES JEFFREY TOOBIN They really did. Am I surprised? I can’t say that I am exactly. Of course, any responsible organization would fire an employee who was publicly revealed (oops, almost said “exposed”) masturbating on camera during a Zoomed staff meeting.

ETHICS ALARMS

Well, I expected this one: Jim Hodgson, a frequent commenter, has an extensive background in law enforcement.Ethics Alarms is fortunate to have the benefit of his perspective, and I am grateful for it. Here is his Comment of the Day on the post, “The Ethics Dilemma That Has No Solution: We Can’t Trust Police, But We Have To”:. The scope of thought provoked by this post could fill volumes. THE UNETHICAL $27 MILLION GEORGE FLOYD SETTLEMENT The family pledged to donate $500,000 of its haul to “lift up” the neighborhood around 38th Street and Chicago Avenue, where the police arrested Floyd on May 25, 2020 for passing a counterfeit bill. (Let’s see: $27 million minus 40% for Crump off the top, minus another $500,000my five year estimate may have been optimistic.) ETHICS HERO: CHICAGO TRIBUNE REPORTER GREGORY PRATT Ethics Hero: Chicago Tribune Reporter Gregory Pratt. May 19, 2021 / Jack Marshall. This was a pleasant surprise. Right before taking Spuds out for his afternoon jaunt, I read the jaw-dropping story that Chicago’s Democratic Mayor Lori Lightfoot had announced via a spokewoman that she would now grant interviews only to “journalists

of color.”.

INCOMPETENT ELECTED OFFICIAL OF THE MONTH: REPRESENTATIVE Representative Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.) demonstrated once again that a critical mass of conservative Republicans just can’t stop themselves from embodying the worst stereotypes imprinted on the public by progressives and the news media. He actually said that some videos of the January 6 riot at the Capitol looked like scenes from a “normal

tourist visit.”

MORE AMERICAN IDOL ETHICS: ARE THE FANS OF THE SHOW REALLY I don’t know how the local news in your area is, but here in Houston, it is awful. I prefer watching paint dry. The local stories are a tiger wandering around a Northwest Houston neighborhood, apparently spirited away by some idiot out on bail for allegedly whacking his girlfriend; a grieving family whose mother was found dead in a local pond after having gone missing two months ago, and OBSERVATIONS ON THE U.S. SUPREME COURT “FINAL FOUR” FOR The indispensible and, as far as I can discern, scrupulously non-partisan and objective Supreme Court analysis site SCOTUSBLOG, has, in a rare display of frivolousness, created a “bracket” quest for its readers to decide on the “the greatest Supreme Court justice” of all time.. The contest is now down to the “Final Four,” as a parody of the NCAA tournament that I somehow manage to “NIPPLEGATE” REVISITED Viacom, CBS’ parent company, received the maximum fine the FCC could issue for such offenses, and paid $3.5 million to settle indecency complaints about the broadcast. Ethics Alarms has featured two reflections on that incident. One was a rebuttal, an easy one, of pop culture pundit Emmanuel Hapsis’s ridiculous analysis, declaring the WORKPLACE ETHICS: 62 THINGS THAT ARE LEGAL, BUT 22 OF THEM Favoritism is legal, just unfair, damaging to morale,irresponsible and stupid—another watermark of poor managers and leaders. It’s legal—but still unethical— for your boss to ask you to pick up his lunch, even though it’s not in your job description. This is an abuse of power, unless there is a valid work-related reason other than

the

VICTIM, WEENIE AND ENABLER: THE PERSECUTION OF PROF. JASON University of Illinois law professor Jason Kilborn used a hypothetical about a employment discrimination case for his final exam. The exam referred to the use of racist and sexist rhetoric such as “n——” and “b—-“. The same question has been on the exam for ten years, but with compelled speech and the the enforced

conformity with

THE UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA CHEATING SCANDAL IRONY I don't think Richard Quinn's outraged lecture showed courage; I think it showed some nerve. He took a short cut, and didn't do the original work his job required. He carelessly used questions he should have known could be found and accessed in advance of the test. He misinformed his students about what questions would

ETHICS ALARMS

Well, I expected this one: Jim Hodgson, a frequent commenter, has an extensive background in law enforcement.Ethics Alarms is fortunate to have the benefit of his perspective, and I am grateful for it. Here is his Comment of the Day on the post, “The Ethics Dilemma That Has No Solution: We Can’t Trust Police, But We Have To”:. The scope of thought provoked by this post could fill volumes. THE UNETHICAL $27 MILLION GEORGE FLOYD SETTLEMENT The family pledged to donate $500,000 of its haul to “lift up” the neighborhood around 38th Street and Chicago Avenue, where the police arrested Floyd on May 25, 2020 for passing a counterfeit bill. (Let’s see: $27 million minus 40% for Crump off the top, minus another $500,000my five year estimate may have been optimistic.) ETHICS HERO: CHICAGO TRIBUNE REPORTER GREGORY PRATT Ethics Hero: Chicago Tribune Reporter Gregory Pratt. May 19, 2021 / Jack Marshall. This was a pleasant surprise. Right before taking Spuds out for his afternoon jaunt, I read the jaw-dropping story that Chicago’s Democratic Mayor Lori Lightfoot had announced via a spokewoman that she would now grant interviews only to “journalists

of color.”.

INCOMPETENT ELECTED OFFICIAL OF THE MONTH: REPRESENTATIVE Representative Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.) demonstrated once again that a critical mass of conservative Republicans just can’t stop themselves from embodying the worst stereotypes imprinted on the public by progressives and the news media. He actually said that some videos of the January 6 riot at the Capitol looked like scenes from a “normal

tourist visit.”

MORE AMERICAN IDOL ETHICS: ARE THE FANS OF THE SHOW REALLY I don’t know how the local news in your area is, but here in Houston, it is awful. I prefer watching paint dry. The local stories are a tiger wandering around a Northwest Houston neighborhood, apparently spirited away by some idiot out on bail for allegedly whacking his girlfriend; a grieving family whose mother was found dead in a local pond after having gone missing two months ago, and OBSERVATIONS ON THE U.S. SUPREME COURT “FINAL FOUR” FOR The indispensible and, as far as I can discern, scrupulously non-partisan and objective Supreme Court analysis site SCOTUSBLOG, has, in a rare display of frivolousness, created a “bracket” quest for its readers to decide on the “the greatest Supreme Court justice” of all time.. The contest is now down to the “Final Four,” as a parody of the NCAA tournament that I somehow manage to “NIPPLEGATE” REVISITED Viacom, CBS’ parent company, received the maximum fine the FCC could issue for such offenses, and paid $3.5 million to settle indecency complaints about the broadcast. Ethics Alarms has featured two reflections on that incident. One was a rebuttal, an easy one, of pop culture pundit Emmanuel Hapsis’s ridiculous analysis, declaring the WORKPLACE ETHICS: 62 THINGS THAT ARE LEGAL, BUT 22 OF THEM Favoritism is legal, just unfair, damaging to morale,irresponsible and stupid—another watermark of poor managers and leaders. It’s legal—but still unethical— for your boss to ask you to pick up his lunch, even though it’s not in your job description. This is an abuse of power, unless there is a valid work-related reason other than

the

VICTIM, WEENIE AND ENABLER: THE PERSECUTION OF PROF. JASON University of Illinois law professor Jason Kilborn used a hypothetical about a employment discrimination case for his final exam. The exam referred to the use of racist and sexist rhetoric such as “n——” and “b—-“. The same question has been on the exam for ten years, but with compelled speech and the the enforced

conformity with

THE UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA CHEATING SCANDAL IRONY I don't think Richard Quinn's outraged lecture showed courage; I think it showed some nerve. He took a short cut, and didn't do the original work his job required. He carelessly used questions he should have known could be found and accessed in advance of the test. He misinformed his students about what questions would MORE ON THE ANDREW YANG “RACIST” CARTOON: SOME PERSPECTIVE In contrast to the political cartoon discussed in the previous post, THIS is a racist cartoon. Below is the Ethics Alarms post from 2014 titled, “9 Observations On The Boston Herald’s ‘Racist’ Cartoon”: 1. I’m adding this new #1 right at the beginning—there were originally only 8 observations—because some of the early comments suggest that I over-estimated some of my JUDGING A WEBSITE BY ITS COMMENTERS The comments on leftist websites—-yes, I include the Washington Post and the New York Times—often make me reconsider my criticism of Michael Savage’s best selling book title, “Liberalism is a Mental

Disorder.”

DEAD ETHICS ALARMS TALES: THE COTTON-PICKING ASSIGNMENT How brain-dead and ethically inert does a teacher have to be to give two black students an assignment to pick cotton? The mind boggles, but this really happened, and at the cringingly politically correctly-named Sacajawea Middle School in Spokane Washington no less. THE ETHICS DILEMMA THAT HAS NO SOLUTION: WE CAN’T TRUST A Netflix documentary that debuted last year crystallized my conclusions about the current attack on police, policing, and the justice system as a part of “white supremacy,” and the so far successful effort by Black Lives Matter and its allies among progressives and the Democratic Party to unravel the core values of

American society.

ETHICS HERO: PRIVATE SCHOOL TEACHER DANA STANGEL-PLOWE Dana Stangel-Plowe, a teacher at the Dwight-Englewood School in Bergen County, New Jersey, resigned from the private school in a damning resignation letter subsequently published by the Foundation Against Intolerance & Racism. FAIR is an organization created to oppose the teaching of Critical Race Theory teachings in schools. MORNING ETHICS WARM-UP, 6/7/2021: “THE MASKS COME OFF AT Last night, when I had to run an errand to our local 7-11, I realized a milestone had been reached: the “Please wear a mask” signs were down outside and I could see the clerk’s face for the first time in

over a year.

CASTING ETHICS: “ANNE BOLEYN” AND DISCRIMINATORY DOUBLE That’s Anne Boleyn on the photo above. No, really, it is. Well, okay, it’s really British actress Jodie Turner-Smith portraying King Henry the VIII’s doomed FRIDAY ALREADY? WELL, IT’S TIME FOR THE ETHICS ALARMS OPEN ←Ethics Villains: The Boston Globe Editorial Board. Leave a Reply Cancel reply. Enter your comment here DEAR RED SOX: THAT WAS AN UNETHICAL BANNER, BUT YOU ASKED During yesterday’s late afternoon game Red Sox game against the Miami Marlins in Fenway Park, some fans unfurled a huge “Trump won — Save America” banner over the centerfield wall during the fourth inning. The banner was confiscated and the fans ejected from the game. I CAN’T LET THIS PASS: CNN REINSTATES JEFFREY TOOBIN They really did. Am I surprised? I can’t say that I am exactly. Of course, any responsible organization would fire an employee who was publicly revealed (oops, almost said “exposed”) masturbating on camera during a Zoomed staff meeting.

ETHICS ALARMS

An ethics commentary blog on current events and issues. The article by German Lopez in Vox published on June 4 is more than just head exploding. It is clinical evidence of brain dysfunction or such deep cynicism and disrespect for readers that the author and editors should be under surveillance. THE UNETHICAL $27 MILLION GEORGE FLOYD SETTLEMENT The family pledged to donate $500,000 of its haul to “lift up” the neighborhood around 38th Street and Chicago Avenue, where the police arrested Floyd on May 25, 2020 for passing a counterfeit bill. (Let’s see: $27 million minus 40% for Crump off the top, minus another $500,000my five year estimate may have been optimistic.) THE REST OF THE STORY, FROM THE ETHICS ALARMS “WHAT AN That was Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s “defense” of her action yesterday announcing that she would only do interviews with black and other non-white colored reporters. Once again, I am tempted to leave this letter from Chicago Mayor Lightfoot free of any further commentary from me, since what makes it not just unethical but a stunning demonstration of so many other deficits on her part ETHICS HERO: CHICAGO TRIBUNE REPORTER GREGORY PRATT Ethics Hero: Chicago Tribune Reporter Gregory Pratt. May 19, 2021 / Jack Marshall. This was a pleasant surprise. Right before taking Spuds out for his afternoon jaunt, I read the jaw-dropping story that Chicago’s Democratic Mayor Lori Lightfoot had announced via a spokewoman that she would now grant interviews only to “journalists

of color.”.

MORE AMERICAN IDOL ETHICS: ARE THE FANS OF THE SHOW REALLY I don’t know how the local news in your area is, but here in Houston, it is awful. I prefer watching paint dry. The local stories are a tiger wandering around a Northwest Houston neighborhood, apparently spirited away by some idiot out on bail for allegedly whacking his girlfriend; a grieving family whose mother was found dead in a local pond after having gone missing two months ago, and INCOMPETENT ELECTED OFFICIAL OF THE MONTH: REPRESENTATIVE Representative Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.) demonstrated once again that a critical mass of conservative Republicans just can’t stop themselves from embodying the worst stereotypes imprinted on the public by progressives and the news media. He actually said that some videos of the January 6 riot at the Capitol looked like scenes from a “normal

tourist visit.”

OBSERVATIONS ON THE U.S. SUPREME COURT “FINAL FOUR” FOR The indispensible and, as far as I can discern, scrupulously non-partisan and objective Supreme Court analysis site SCOTUSBLOG, has, in a rare display of frivolousness, created a “bracket” quest for its readers to decide on the “the greatest Supreme Court justice” of all time.. The contest is now down to the “Final Four,” as a parody of the NCAA tournament that I somehow manage to WORKPLACE ETHICS: 62 THINGS THAT ARE LEGAL, BUT 22 OF THEM Favoritism is legal, just unfair, damaging to morale,irresponsible and stupid—another watermark of poor managers and leaders. It’s legal—but still unethical— for your boss to ask you to pick up his lunch, even though it’s not in your job description. This is an abuse of power, unless there is a valid work-related reason other than

the

SORRY, I CAN’T LET THIS PASS: THE NUMBER OF WOMEN ACCUSING Yesterday evening, noting the the “Love Guv’s” accusers had risen to seven, I wrote, I thought in jest, “OoohBill Cosby must be getting worried! ” Now the Cos, who has over 50 women who say he drugged and molested them, really might wonder if Cuomo is a threat to his record. For The Independent reports,. A New York Magazine report outlines 30 new women accusing Andrew Cuomo WARNING LABEL: “LAWYERS WHO TAKE THIS CASE RISK BEING 28 thoughts on “ Warning Label: “Lawyers Who Take This Case Risk Being Mocked And Ridiculed For The Rest Of Their Lives, As Well As Being Investigated By

ETHICS ALARMS

An ethics commentary blog on current events and issues. The article by German Lopez in Vox published on June 4 is more than just head exploding. It is clinical evidence of brain dysfunction or such deep cynicism and disrespect for readers that the author and editors should be under surveillance. THE UNETHICAL $27 MILLION GEORGE FLOYD SETTLEMENT The family pledged to donate $500,000 of its haul to “lift up” the neighborhood around 38th Street and Chicago Avenue, where the police arrested Floyd on May 25, 2020 for passing a counterfeit bill. (Let’s see: $27 million minus 40% for Crump off the top, minus another $500,000my five year estimate may have been optimistic.) THE REST OF THE STORY, FROM THE ETHICS ALARMS “WHAT AN That was Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s “defense” of her action yesterday announcing that she would only do interviews with black and other non-white colored reporters. Once again, I am tempted to leave this letter from Chicago Mayor Lightfoot free of any further commentary from me, since what makes it not just unethical but a stunning demonstration of so many other deficits on her part ETHICS HERO: CHICAGO TRIBUNE REPORTER GREGORY PRATT Ethics Hero: Chicago Tribune Reporter Gregory Pratt. May 19, 2021 / Jack Marshall. This was a pleasant surprise. Right before taking Spuds out for his afternoon jaunt, I read the jaw-dropping story that Chicago’s Democratic Mayor Lori Lightfoot had announced via a spokewoman that she would now grant interviews only to “journalists

of color.”.

MORE AMERICAN IDOL ETHICS: ARE THE FANS OF THE SHOW REALLY I don’t know how the local news in your area is, but here in Houston, it is awful. I prefer watching paint dry. The local stories are a tiger wandering around a Northwest Houston neighborhood, apparently spirited away by some idiot out on bail for allegedly whacking his girlfriend; a grieving family whose mother was found dead in a local pond after having gone missing two months ago, and INCOMPETENT ELECTED OFFICIAL OF THE MONTH: REPRESENTATIVE Representative Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.) demonstrated once again that a critical mass of conservative Republicans just can’t stop themselves from embodying the worst stereotypes imprinted on the public by progressives and the news media. He actually said that some videos of the January 6 riot at the Capitol looked like scenes from a “normal

tourist visit.”

OBSERVATIONS ON THE U.S. SUPREME COURT “FINAL FOUR” FOR The indispensible and, as far as I can discern, scrupulously non-partisan and objective Supreme Court analysis site SCOTUSBLOG, has, in a rare display of frivolousness, created a “bracket” quest for its readers to decide on the “the greatest Supreme Court justice” of all time.. The contest is now down to the “Final Four,” as a parody of the NCAA tournament that I somehow manage to WORKPLACE ETHICS: 62 THINGS THAT ARE LEGAL, BUT 22 OF THEM Favoritism is legal, just unfair, damaging to morale,irresponsible and stupid—another watermark of poor managers and leaders. It’s legal—but still unethical— for your boss to ask you to pick up his lunch, even though it’s not in your job description. This is an abuse of power, unless there is a valid work-related reason other than

the

SORRY, I CAN’T LET THIS PASS: THE NUMBER OF WOMEN ACCUSING Yesterday evening, noting the the “Love Guv’s” accusers had risen to seven, I wrote, I thought in jest, “OoohBill Cosby must be getting worried! ” Now the Cos, who has over 50 women who say he drugged and molested them, really might wonder if Cuomo is a threat to his record. For The Independent reports,. A New York Magazine report outlines 30 new women accusing Andrew Cuomo WARNING LABEL: “LAWYERS WHO TAKE THIS CASE RISK BEING 28 thoughts on “ Warning Label: “Lawyers Who Take This Case Risk Being Mocked And Ridiculed For The Rest Of Their Lives, As Well As Being Investigated By

UNETHICAL WEBSITES

Unethical Website of the Month: Dogsbite.Org. This despicable website, created by phobics, liars, fools and bigots to promote dog breed prejudice and persecution of responsible dog owners, is discredited by the vast, vast majority of dog experts, breeders, and people with any

knowledge of dogs.

JUDGING A WEBSITE BY ITS COMMENTERS The comments on leftist websites—-yes, I include the Washington Post and the New York Times—often make me reconsider my criticism of Michael Savage’s best selling book title, “Liberalism is a Mental

Disorder.”

DEAD ETHICS ALARMS TALES: THE COTTON-PICKING ASSIGNMENT How brain-dead and ethically inert does a teacher have to be to give two black students an assignment to pick cotton? The mind boggles, but this really happened, and at the cringingly politically correctly-named Sacajawea Middle School in Spokane Washington no less. ETHICS MADNESS ON THE GOLF COURSE I saw this story four days ago, and talked myself out of posting about it because I decided there had to be something I was missing and I didn’t feel like spending time researching pro golf, since I find golf so boring.But I couldn’t help myself, and kept reading articles, and now I’m convinced. This was wrong. And it was nuts. (Yeah, I’m pretty sick of the “Madness!” clip from the MORNING ETHICS WARM-UP, 6/7/2021: “THE MASKS COME OFF AT Last night, when I had to run an errand to our local 7-11, I realized a milestone had been reached: the “Please wear a mask” signs were down outside and I could see the clerk’s face for the first time in

over a year.

GOOD ETHICS NEWS! IT IS FAIR TO SAY THAT VICE-PRESIDENT There is no question about it: fraudulent personalities and con artists have been elected President of the United States in the past. However, that challenge isn’t easy, and being able to fool the public most of the time isn’t the only skill required to pull it

off.

I CAN’T LET THIS PASS: CNN REINSTATES JEFFREY TOOBIN They really did. Am I surprised? I can’t say that I am exactly. Of course, any responsible organization would fire an employee who was publicly revealed (oops, almost said “exposed”) masturbating on camera during a Zoomed staff meeting. ETHICS HERO: PRIVATE SCHOOL TEACHER DANA STANGEL-PLOWE Dana Stangel-Plowe, a teacher at the Dwight-Englewood School in Bergen County, New Jersey, resigned from the private school in a damning resignation letter subsequently published by the Foundation Against Intolerance & Racism. FAIR is an organization created to oppose the teaching of Critical Race Theory teachings in schools. DEAR RED SOX: THAT WAS AN UNETHICAL BANNER, BUT YOU ASKED During yesterday’s late afternoon game Red Sox game against the Miami Marlins in Fenway Park, some fans unfurled a huge “Trump won — Save America” banner over the centerfield wall during the fourth inning. The banner was confiscated and the fans ejected from the game. THE MURDER OF MEGAN MONTGOMERY AND THE DEATH OF JOURNALISM Here is the NBC News headline: “The state of Alabama took his gun away.When authorities gave it back, he shot and killed his wife.” Here is the sub-head: “Alabama authorities took his gun away after a violent domestic incident. Nine months later they gave it back, and he

used it

ETHICS ALARMS

May 29 is the anniversary of the epic moment when, at 11:30 a.m. on May 29, 1953, Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay, a Sherpa of Nepal, become the first explorers to reach the summit of Mount Everest. At 29,035 feet above sea level, the peak of Everest is the highest point on earth. THE UNETHICAL $27 MILLION GEORGE FLOYD SETTLEMENT The family pledged to donate $500,000 of its haul to “lift up” the neighborhood around 38th Street and Chicago Avenue, where the police arrested Floyd on May 25, 2020 for passing a counterfeit bill. (Let’s see: $27 million minus 40% for Crump off the top, minus another $500,000my five year estimate may have been optimistic.) ETHICS HERO: CHICAGO TRIBUNE REPORTER GREGORY PRATT Ethics Hero: Chicago Tribune Reporter Gregory Pratt. May 19, 2021 / Jack Marshall. This was a pleasant surprise. Right before taking Spuds out for his afternoon jaunt, I read the jaw-dropping story that Chicago’s Democratic Mayor Lori Lightfoot had announced via a spokewoman that she would now grant interviews only to “journalists

of color.”.

INCOMPETENT ELECTED OFFICIAL OF THE MONTH: REPRESENTATIVE Representative Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.) demonstrated once again that a critical mass of conservative Republicans just can’t stop themselves from embodying the worst stereotypes imprinted on the public by progressives and the news media. He actually said that some videos of the January 6 riot at the Capitol looked like scenes from a “normal

tourist visit.”

OBSERVATIONS ON THE U.S. SUPREME COURT “FINAL FOUR” FOR The indispensible and, as far as I can discern, scrupulously non-partisan and objective Supreme Court analysis site SCOTUSBLOG, has, in a rare display of frivolousness, created a “bracket” quest for its readers to decide on the “the greatest Supreme Court justice” of all time.. The contest is now down to the “Final Four,” as a parody of the NCAA tournament that I somehow manage to CAPTAIN CROZIER AND THE GHOST OF BILLY MITCHELL At age 18 he enlisted as a private in the army, and by the age of 23 he had become the youngest captain in the U.S. Army. It was a pattern; being a prodigy and trailblazer in the military came naturally to Mitchell. In 1913, at the age of 32, he became the youngest officer ever assigned to the General Staff of the War Department in

Washington.

WORKPLACE ETHICS: 62 THINGS THAT ARE LEGAL, BUT 22 OF THEM Favoritism is legal, just unfair, damaging to morale,irresponsible and stupid—another watermark of poor managers and leaders. It’s legal—but still unethical— for your boss to ask you to pick up his lunch, even though it’s not in your job description. This is an abuse of power, unless there is a valid work-related reason other than

the

SORRY, I CAN’T LET THIS PASS: THE NUMBER OF WOMEN ACCUSING Yesterday evening, noting the the “Love Guv’s” accusers had risen to seven, I wrote, I thought in jest, “OoohBill Cosby must be getting worried! ” Now the Cos, who has over 50 women who say he drugged and molested them, really might wonder if Cuomo is a threat to his record. For The Independent reports,. A New York Magazine report outlines 30 new women accusing Andrew Cuomo “TIGER KING” ETHICS…IF YOU CAN CONTROL YOUR GAGGING You should watch the current hit Netflix documentary “Tiger King” as an ethics exercise, if you can keep focused. It’s difficult. The seven episode horror show/freak show/ “Well, it’s time for another shower!” thing is rife with revelations about America and its culture as well as the infinite variety of humanity that breeds and mutates under rocks and over them. WANETTA GIBSON IS EVEN WORSE THAN WE THOUGHT Of Wanetta Gibson, the woman who sent innocent high school football star Brian Banks to prison for five years for a rape he didn’t commit, collected $750,000 by continuing her lie in a lawsuit against the high school where she and Banks were both students, and then sought forgiveness from him in prison while refusing to exonerate him to prosecutors because she didn’t want to give back the

ETHICS ALARMS

May 29 is the anniversary of the epic moment when, at 11:30 a.m. on May 29, 1953, Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay, a Sherpa of Nepal, become the first explorers to reach the summit of Mount Everest. At 29,035 feet above sea level, the peak of Everest is the highest point on earth. THE UNETHICAL $27 MILLION GEORGE FLOYD SETTLEMENT The family pledged to donate $500,000 of its haul to “lift up” the neighborhood around 38th Street and Chicago Avenue, where the police arrested Floyd on May 25, 2020 for passing a counterfeit bill. (Let’s see: $27 million minus 40% for Crump off the top, minus another $500,000my five year estimate may have been optimistic.) ETHICS HERO: CHICAGO TRIBUNE REPORTER GREGORY PRATT Ethics Hero: Chicago Tribune Reporter Gregory Pratt. May 19, 2021 / Jack Marshall. This was a pleasant surprise. Right before taking Spuds out for his afternoon jaunt, I read the jaw-dropping story that Chicago’s Democratic Mayor Lori Lightfoot had announced via a spokewoman that she would now grant interviews only to “journalists

of color.”.

INCOMPETENT ELECTED OFFICIAL OF THE MONTH: REPRESENTATIVE Representative Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.) demonstrated once again that a critical mass of conservative Republicans just can’t stop themselves from embodying the worst stereotypes imprinted on the public by progressives and the news media. He actually said that some videos of the January 6 riot at the Capitol looked like scenes from a “normal

tourist visit.”

OBSERVATIONS ON THE U.S. SUPREME COURT “FINAL FOUR” FOR The indispensible and, as far as I can discern, scrupulously non-partisan and objective Supreme Court analysis site SCOTUSBLOG, has, in a rare display of frivolousness, created a “bracket” quest for its readers to decide on the “the greatest Supreme Court justice” of all time.. The contest is now down to the “Final Four,” as a parody of the NCAA tournament that I somehow manage to CAPTAIN CROZIER AND THE GHOST OF BILLY MITCHELL At age 18 he enlisted as a private in the army, and by the age of 23 he had become the youngest captain in the U.S. Army. It was a pattern; being a prodigy and trailblazer in the military came naturally to Mitchell. In 1913, at the age of 32, he became the youngest officer ever assigned to the General Staff of the War Department in

Washington.

WORKPLACE ETHICS: 62 THINGS THAT ARE LEGAL, BUT 22 OF THEM Favoritism is legal, just unfair, damaging to morale,irresponsible and stupid—another watermark of poor managers and leaders. It’s legal—but still unethical— for your boss to ask you to pick up his lunch, even though it’s not in your job description. This is an abuse of power, unless there is a valid work-related reason other than

the

SORRY, I CAN’T LET THIS PASS: THE NUMBER OF WOMEN ACCUSING Yesterday evening, noting the the “Love Guv’s” accusers had risen to seven, I wrote, I thought in jest, “OoohBill Cosby must be getting worried! ” Now the Cos, who has over 50 women who say he drugged and molested them, really might wonder if Cuomo is a threat to his record. For The Independent reports,. A New York Magazine report outlines 30 new women accusing Andrew Cuomo “TIGER KING” ETHICS…IF YOU CAN CONTROL YOUR GAGGING You should watch the current hit Netflix documentary “Tiger King” as an ethics exercise, if you can keep focused. It’s difficult. The seven episode horror show/freak show/ “Well, it’s time for another shower!” thing is rife with revelations about America and its culture as well as the infinite variety of humanity that breeds and mutates under rocks and over them. WANETTA GIBSON IS EVEN WORSE THAN WE THOUGHT Of Wanetta Gibson, the woman who sent innocent high school football star Brian Banks to prison for five years for a rape he didn’t commit, collected $750,000 by continuing her lie in a lawsuit against the high school where she and Banks were both students, and then sought forgiveness from him in prison while refusing to exonerate him to prosecutors because she didn’t want to give back the FROM THE “RES IPSA LOQUITUR” FILES, LEGAL ETHICS SECTION It’s a little fuzzy, so I’ll summarize: during a Zoom trial before the Michigan Court of Appeals, this Michigan lawyer held his middle finger up to the camera while his opponent was speaking. DÉJÀ VU: ON THE RESPONSE TO THE WINSTON “BOOGIE”SMITH Either society will finally stop accepting this increasingly obvious effort to intimidate police out of enforcing the law against one group of criminals based on their skin-shades, or they will allow domestic

terrorism to work.

MORNING ETHICS WARM-UP, 6/3/2021 Actor John Cena posted a video to Sena Wiebo, China’s Twitterish social media platform, apologizing to Chinese fans—in Mandarin!– for calling Taiwan a “country” in his recent interview promoting “F9,” the latest installment of the “Fast & Furious” franchise.What a weasel. There may be diplomatic reasons that justify apologies to China, but an American citizen kowtowing to THE MURDER OF MEGAN MONTGOMERY AND THE DEATH OF JOURNALISM Here is the NBC News headline: “The state of Alabama took his gun away.When authorities gave it back, he shot and killed his wife.” Here is the sub-head: “Alabama authorities took his gun away after a violent domestic incident. Nine months later they gave it back, and he

used it

MORE AMERICAN IDOL ETHICS: ARE THE FANS OF THE SHOW REALLY I don’t know how the local news in your area is, but here in Houston, it is awful. I prefer watching paint dry. The local stories are a tiger wandering around a Northwest Houston neighborhood, apparently spirited away by some idiot out on bail for allegedly whacking his girlfriend; a grieving family whose mother was found dead in a local pond after having gone missing two months ago, and INCREDIBLY, A UNANIMOUS U.S. SUPREME COURT RULES AGAINST See? The government isn’t completely crazy. Not for the first time, the Supreme Court has emphatically sided with the rule of law, confounding the Biden Administration and such Democratic Party stars as Senators Mazi Hirono (D-Hawaii), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), and former DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla A “I MUST BE MISSING SOMETHING” ETHICS QUIZ: ARIZONA’S ←Morning Ethics Warm-Up, 6/7/2021: “The Masks Come Off At The Local 7-11” Edition AUTHENTIC FRONTIER GIBBERISH KILLS: THE GUN POLICY “Authentic Frontier Gibberish,” or AFG, named in honor of Gabby Johnson of “Blazing Saddles” fame, is the public phenomenon of solemn and meaningful-sounding word clouds designed to make the naive and the barely educated (that is, most of society) feel certain that they are in the presence of superior intellect when in fact they are in the thrall of either con artists or morons. NOW I ALMOST REGRET QUITTING TWITTER… I followed that twitter feed and everyone is a handwriting expert and the doubters are focusing on the bicycle standing in the driveway, assuming it was there all night. THE BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT’S ETHICS WILD HORSE WRECK The snail darter was more than just high-priced sentimentality and protecting a supposedly endangered species from extinction. It was an example of the EPA attempting to take lands without compensation to

the owners.

ETHICS ALARMS

May 29 is the anniversary of the epic moment when, at 11:30 a.m. on May 29, 1953, Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay, a Sherpa of Nepal, become the first explorers to reach the summit of Mount Everest. At 29,035 feet above sea level, the peak of Everest is the highest point on earth. THE UNETHICAL $27 MILLION GEORGE FLOYD SETTLEMENT The family pledged to donate $500,000 of its haul to “lift up” the neighborhood around 38th Street and Chicago Avenue, where the police arrested Floyd on May 25, 2020 for passing a counterfeit bill. (Let’s see: $27 million minus 40% for Crump off the top, minus another $500,000my five year estimate may have been optimistic.) ETHICS HERO: CHICAGO TRIBUNE REPORTER GREGORY PRATT Ethics Hero: Chicago Tribune Reporter Gregory Pratt. May 19, 2021 / Jack Marshall. This was a pleasant surprise. Right before taking Spuds out for his afternoon jaunt, I read the jaw-dropping story that Chicago’s Democratic Mayor Lori Lightfoot had announced via a spokewoman that she would now grant interviews only to “journalists

of color.”.

INCOMPETENT ELECTED OFFICIAL OF THE MONTH: REPRESENTATIVE Representative Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.) demonstrated once again that a critical mass of conservative Republicans just can’t stop themselves from embodying the worst stereotypes imprinted on the public by progressives and the news media. He actually said that some videos of the January 6 riot at the Capitol looked like scenes from a “normal

tourist visit.”

OBSERVATIONS ON THE U.S. SUPREME COURT “FINAL FOUR” FOR The indispensible and, as far as I can discern, scrupulously non-partisan and objective Supreme Court analysis site SCOTUSBLOG, has, in a rare display of frivolousness, created a “bracket” quest for its readers to decide on the “the greatest Supreme Court justice” of all time.. The contest is now down to the “Final Four,” as a parody of the NCAA tournament that I somehow manage to CAPTAIN CROZIER AND THE GHOST OF BILLY MITCHELL At age 18 he enlisted as a private in the army, and by the age of 23 he had become the youngest captain in the U.S. Army. It was a pattern; being a prodigy and trailblazer in the military came naturally to Mitchell. In 1913, at the age of 32, he became the youngest officer ever assigned to the General Staff of the War Department in

Washington.

WORKPLACE ETHICS: 62 THINGS THAT ARE LEGAL, BUT 22 OF THEM Favoritism is legal, just unfair, damaging to morale,irresponsible and stupid—another watermark of poor managers and leaders. It’s legal—but still unethical— for your boss to ask you to pick up his lunch, even though it’s not in your job description. This is an abuse of power, unless there is a valid work-related reason other than

the

SORRY, I CAN’T LET THIS PASS: THE NUMBER OF WOMEN ACCUSING Yesterday evening, noting the the “Love Guv’s” accusers had risen to seven, I wrote, I thought in jest, “OoohBill Cosby must be getting worried! ” Now the Cos, who has over 50 women who say he drugged and molested them, really might wonder if Cuomo is a threat to his record. For The Independent reports,. A New York Magazine report outlines 30 new women accusing Andrew Cuomo “TIGER KING” ETHICS…IF YOU CAN CONTROL YOUR GAGGING You should watch the current hit Netflix documentary “Tiger King” as an ethics exercise, if you can keep focused. It’s difficult. The seven episode horror show/freak show/ “Well, it’s time for another shower!” thing is rife with revelations about America and its culture as well as the infinite variety of humanity that breeds and mutates under rocks and over them. WANETTA GIBSON IS EVEN WORSE THAN WE THOUGHT Of Wanetta Gibson, the woman who sent innocent high school football star Brian Banks to prison for five years for a rape he didn’t commit, collected $750,000 by continuing her lie in a lawsuit against the high school where she and Banks were both students, and then sought forgiveness from him in prison while refusing to exonerate him to prosecutors because she didn’t want to give back the

ETHICS ALARMS

May 29 is the anniversary of the epic moment when, at 11:30 a.m. on May 29, 1953, Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay, a Sherpa of Nepal, become the first explorers to reach the summit of Mount Everest. At 29,035 feet above sea level, the peak of Everest is the highest point on earth. THE UNETHICAL $27 MILLION GEORGE FLOYD SETTLEMENT The family pledged to donate $500,000 of its haul to “lift up” the neighborhood around 38th Street and Chicago Avenue, where the police arrested Floyd on May 25, 2020 for passing a counterfeit bill. (Let’s see: $27 million minus 40% for Crump off the top, minus another $500,000my five year estimate may have been optimistic.) ETHICS HERO: CHICAGO TRIBUNE REPORTER GREGORY PRATT Ethics Hero: Chicago Tribune Reporter Gregory Pratt. May 19, 2021 / Jack Marshall. This was a pleasant surprise. Right before taking Spuds out for his afternoon jaunt, I read the jaw-dropping story that Chicago’s Democratic Mayor Lori Lightfoot had announced via a spokewoman that she would now grant interviews only to “journalists

of color.”.

INCOMPETENT ELECTED OFFICIAL OF THE MONTH: REPRESENTATIVE Representative Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.) demonstrated once again that a critical mass of conservative Republicans just can’t stop themselves from embodying the worst stereotypes imprinted on the public by progressives and the news media. He actually said that some videos of the January 6 riot at the Capitol looked like scenes from a “normal

tourist visit.”

OBSERVATIONS ON THE U.S. SUPREME COURT “FINAL FOUR” FOR The indispensible and, as far as I can discern, scrupulously non-partisan and objective Supreme Court analysis site SCOTUSBLOG, has, in a rare display of frivolousness, created a “bracket” quest for its readers to decide on the “the greatest Supreme Court justice” of all time.. The contest is now down to the “Final Four,” as a parody of the NCAA tournament that I somehow manage to CAPTAIN CROZIER AND THE GHOST OF BILLY MITCHELL At age 18 he enlisted as a private in the army, and by the age of 23 he had become the youngest captain in the U.S. Army. It was a pattern; being a prodigy and trailblazer in the military came naturally to Mitchell. In 1913, at the age of 32, he became the youngest officer ever assigned to the General Staff of the War Department in

Washington.

WORKPLACE ETHICS: 62 THINGS THAT ARE LEGAL, BUT 22 OF THEM Favoritism is legal, just unfair, damaging to morale,irresponsible and stupid—another watermark of poor managers and leaders. It’s legal—but still unethical— for your boss to ask you to pick up his lunch, even though it’s not in your job description. This is an abuse of power, unless there is a valid work-related reason other than

the

SORRY, I CAN’T LET THIS PASS: THE NUMBER OF WOMEN ACCUSING Yesterday evening, noting the the “Love Guv’s” accusers had risen to seven, I wrote, I thought in jest, “OoohBill Cosby must be getting worried! ” Now the Cos, who has over 50 women who say he drugged and molested them, really might wonder if Cuomo is a threat to his record. For The Independent reports,. A New York Magazine report outlines 30 new women accusing Andrew Cuomo “TIGER KING” ETHICS…IF YOU CAN CONTROL YOUR GAGGING You should watch the current hit Netflix documentary “Tiger King” as an ethics exercise, if you can keep focused. It’s difficult. The seven episode horror show/freak show/ “Well, it’s time for another shower!” thing is rife with revelations about America and its culture as well as the infinite variety of humanity that breeds and mutates under rocks and over them. WANETTA GIBSON IS EVEN WORSE THAN WE THOUGHT Of Wanetta Gibson, the woman who sent innocent high school football star Brian Banks to prison for five years for a rape he didn’t commit, collected $750,000 by continuing her lie in a lawsuit against the high school where she and Banks were both students, and then sought forgiveness from him in prison while refusing to exonerate him to prosecutors because she didn’t want to give back the FROM THE “RES IPSA LOQUITUR” FILES, LEGAL ETHICS SECTION It’s a little fuzzy, so I’ll summarize: during a Zoom trial before the Michigan Court of Appeals, this Michigan lawyer held his middle finger up to the camera while his opponent was speaking. DÉJÀ VU: ON THE RESPONSE TO THE WINSTON “BOOGIE”SMITH Either society will finally stop accepting this increasingly obvious effort to intimidate police out of enforcing the law against one group of criminals based on their skin-shades, or they will allow domestic

terrorism to work.

MORNING ETHICS WARM-UP, 6/3/2021 Actor John Cena posted a video to Sena Wiebo, China’s Twitterish social media platform, apologizing to Chinese fans—in Mandarin!– for calling Taiwan a “country” in his recent interview promoting “F9,” the latest installment of the “Fast & Furious” franchise.What a weasel. There may be diplomatic reasons that justify apologies to China, but an American citizen kowtowing to THE MURDER OF MEGAN MONTGOMERY AND THE DEATH OF JOURNALISM Here is the NBC News headline: “The state of Alabama took his gun away.When authorities gave it back, he shot and killed his wife.” Here is the sub-head: “Alabama authorities took his gun away after a violent domestic incident. Nine months later they gave it back, and he

used it

MORE AMERICAN IDOL ETHICS: ARE THE FANS OF THE SHOW REALLY I don’t know how the local news in your area is, but here in Houston, it is awful. I prefer watching paint dry. The local stories are a tiger wandering around a Northwest Houston neighborhood, apparently spirited away by some idiot out on bail for allegedly whacking his girlfriend; a grieving family whose mother was found dead in a local pond after having gone missing two months ago, and INCREDIBLY, A UNANIMOUS U.S. SUPREME COURT RULES AGAINST See? The government isn’t completely crazy. Not for the first time, the Supreme Court has emphatically sided with the rule of law, confounding the Biden Administration and such Democratic Party stars as Senators Mazi Hirono (D-Hawaii), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), and former DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla A “I MUST BE MISSING SOMETHING” ETHICS QUIZ: ARIZONA’S ←Morning Ethics Warm-Up, 6/7/2021: “The Masks Come Off At The Local 7-11” Edition AUTHENTIC FRONTIER GIBBERISH KILLS: THE GUN POLICY “Authentic Frontier Gibberish,” or AFG, named in honor of Gabby Johnson of “Blazing Saddles” fame, is the public phenomenon of solemn and meaningful-sounding word clouds designed to make the naive and the barely educated (that is, most of society) feel certain that they are in the presence of superior intellect when in fact they are in the thrall of either con artists or morons. NOW I ALMOST REGRET QUITTING TWITTER… I followed that twitter feed and everyone is a handwriting expert and the doubters are focusing on the bicycle standing in the driveway, assuming it was there all night. THE BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT’S ETHICS WILD HORSE WRECK The snail darter was more than just high-priced sentimentality and protecting a supposedly endangered species from extinction. It was an example of the EPA attempting to take lands without compensation to

the owners.

ETHICS ALARMS

May 29 is the anniversary of the epic moment when, at 11:30 a.m. on May 29, 1953, Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay, a Sherpa of Nepal, become the first explorers to reach the summit of Mount Everest. At 29,035 feet above sea level, the peak of Everest is the highest point on earth. THE UNETHICAL $27 MILLION GEORGE FLOYD SETTLEMENT The family pledged to donate $500,000 of its haul to “lift up” the neighborhood around 38th Street and Chicago Avenue, where the police arrested Floyd on May 25, 2020 for passing a counterfeit bill. (Let’s see: $27 million minus 40% for Crump off the top, minus another $500,000my five year estimate may have been optimistic.) ETHICS HERO: CHICAGO TRIBUNE REPORTER GREGORY PRATT Ethics Hero: Chicago Tribune Reporter Gregory Pratt. May 19, 2021 / Jack Marshall. This was a pleasant surprise. Right before taking Spuds out for his afternoon jaunt, I read the jaw-dropping story that Chicago’s Democratic Mayor Lori Lightfoot had announced via a spokewoman that she would now grant interviews only to “journalists

of color.”.

INCOMPETENT ELECTED OFFICIAL OF THE MONTH: REPRESENTATIVE Representative Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.) demonstrated once again that a critical mass of conservative Republicans just can’t stop themselves from embodying the worst stereotypes imprinted on the public by progressives and the news media. He actually said that some videos of the January 6 riot at the Capitol looked like scenes from a “normal

tourist visit.”

OBSERVATIONS ON THE U.S. SUPREME COURT “FINAL FOUR” FOR The indispensible and, as far as I can discern, scrupulously non-partisan and objective Supreme Court analysis site SCOTUSBLOG, has, in a rare display of frivolousness, created a “bracket” quest for its readers to decide on the “the greatest Supreme Court justice” of all time.. The contest is now down to the “Final Four,” as a parody of the NCAA tournament that I somehow manage to CAPTAIN CROZIER AND THE GHOST OF BILLY MITCHELL At age 18 he enlisted as a private in the army, and by the age of 23 he had become the youngest captain in the U.S. Army. It was a pattern; being a prodigy and trailblazer in the military came naturally to Mitchell. In 1913, at the age of 32, he became the youngest officer ever assigned to the General Staff of the War Department in

Washington.

WORKPLACE ETHICS: 62 THINGS THAT ARE LEGAL, BUT 22 OF THEM Favoritism is legal, just unfair, damaging to morale,irresponsible and stupid—another watermark of poor managers and leaders. It’s legal—but still unethical— for your boss to ask you to pick up his lunch, even though it’s not in your job description. This is an abuse of power, unless there is a valid work-related reason other than

the

SORRY, I CAN’T LET THIS PASS: THE NUMBER OF WOMEN ACCUSING Yesterday evening, noting the the “Love Guv’s” accusers had risen to seven, I wrote, I thought in jest, “OoohBill Cosby must be getting worried! ” Now the Cos, who has over 50 women who say he drugged and molested them, really might wonder if Cuomo is a threat to his record. For The Independent reports,. A New York Magazine report outlines 30 new women accusing Andrew Cuomo “TIGER KING” ETHICS…IF YOU CAN CONTROL YOUR GAGGING You should watch the current hit Netflix documentary “Tiger King” as an ethics exercise, if you can keep focused. It’s difficult. The seven episode horror show/freak show/ “Well, it’s time for another shower!” thing is rife with revelations about America and its culture as well as the infinite variety of humanity that breeds and mutates under rocks and over them. WANETTA GIBSON IS EVEN WORSE THAN WE THOUGHT Of Wanetta Gibson, the woman who sent innocent high school football star Brian Banks to prison for five years for a rape he didn’t commit, collected $750,000 by continuing her lie in a lawsuit against the high school where she and Banks were both students, and then sought forgiveness from him in prison while refusing to exonerate him to prosecutors because she didn’t want to give back the

ETHICS ALARMS

May 29 is the anniversary of the epic moment when, at 11:30 a.m. on May 29, 1953, Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay, a Sherpa of Nepal, become the first explorers to reach the summit of Mount Everest. At 29,035 feet above sea level, the peak of Everest is the highest point on earth. THE UNETHICAL $27 MILLION GEORGE FLOYD SETTLEMENT The family pledged to donate $500,000 of its haul to “lift up” the neighborhood around 38th Street and Chicago Avenue, where the police arrested Floyd on May 25, 2020 for passing a counterfeit bill. (Let’s see: $27 million minus 40% for Crump off the top, minus another $500,000my five year estimate may have been optimistic.) ETHICS HERO: CHICAGO TRIBUNE REPORTER GREGORY PRATT Ethics Hero: Chicago Tribune Reporter Gregory Pratt. May 19, 2021 / Jack Marshall. This was a pleasant surprise. Right before taking Spuds out for his afternoon jaunt, I read the jaw-dropping story that Chicago’s Democratic Mayor Lori Lightfoot had announced via a spokewoman that she would now grant interviews only to “journalists

of color.”.

INCOMPETENT ELECTED OFFICIAL OF THE MONTH: REPRESENTATIVE Representative Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.) demonstrated once again that a critical mass of conservative Republicans just can’t stop themselves from embodying the worst stereotypes imprinted on the public by progressives and the news media. He actually said that some videos of the January 6 riot at the Capitol looked like scenes from a “normal

tourist visit.”

OBSERVATIONS ON THE U.S. SUPREME COURT “FINAL FOUR” FOR The indispensible and, as far as I can discern, scrupulously non-partisan and objective Supreme Court analysis site SCOTUSBLOG, has, in a rare display of frivolousness, created a “bracket” quest for its readers to decide on the “the greatest Supreme Court justice” of all time.. The contest is now down to the “Final Four,” as a parody of the NCAA tournament that I somehow manage to CAPTAIN CROZIER AND THE GHOST OF BILLY MITCHELL At age 18 he enlisted as a private in the army, and by the age of 23 he had become the youngest captain in the U.S. Army. It was a pattern; being a prodigy and trailblazer in the military came naturally to Mitchell. In 1913, at the age of 32, he became the youngest officer ever assigned to the General Staff of the War Department in

Washington.

WORKPLACE ETHICS: 62 THINGS THAT ARE LEGAL, BUT 22 OF THEM Favoritism is legal, just unfair, damaging to morale,irresponsible and stupid—another watermark of poor managers and leaders. It’s legal—but still unethical— for your boss to ask you to pick up his lunch, even though it’s not in your job description. This is an abuse of power, unless there is a valid work-related reason other than

the

SORRY, I CAN’T LET THIS PASS: THE NUMBER OF WOMEN ACCUSING Yesterday evening, noting the the “Love Guv’s” accusers had risen to seven, I wrote, I thought in jest, “OoohBill Cosby must be getting worried! ” Now the Cos, who has over 50 women who say he drugged and molested them, really might wonder if Cuomo is a threat to his record. For The Independent reports,. A New York Magazine report outlines 30 new women accusing Andrew Cuomo “TIGER KING” ETHICS…IF YOU CAN CONTROL YOUR GAGGING You should watch the current hit Netflix documentary “Tiger King” as an ethics exercise, if you can keep focused. It’s difficult. The seven episode horror show/freak show/ “Well, it’s time for another shower!” thing is rife with revelations about America and its culture as well as the infinite variety of humanity that breeds and mutates under rocks and over them. WANETTA GIBSON IS EVEN WORSE THAN WE THOUGHT Of Wanetta Gibson, the woman who sent innocent high school football star Brian Banks to prison for five years for a rape he didn’t commit, collected $750,000 by continuing her lie in a lawsuit against the high school where she and Banks were both students, and then sought forgiveness from him in prison while refusing to exonerate him to prosecutors because she didn’t want to give back the FROM THE “RES IPSA LOQUITUR” FILES, LEGAL ETHICS SECTION It’s a little fuzzy, so I’ll summarize: during a Zoom trial before the Michigan Court of Appeals, this Michigan lawyer held his middle finger up to the camera while his opponent was speaking. DÉJÀ VU: ON THE RESPONSE TO THE WINSTON “BOOGIE”SMITH Either society will finally stop accepting this increasingly obvious effort to intimidate police out of enforcing the law against one group of criminals based on their skin-shades, or they will allow domestic

terrorism to work.

MORNING ETHICS WARM-UP, 6/3/2021 Actor John Cena posted a video to Sena Wiebo, China’s Twitterish social media platform, apologizing to Chinese fans—in Mandarin!– for calling Taiwan a “country” in his recent interview promoting “F9,” the latest installment of the “Fast & Furious” franchise.What a weasel. There may be diplomatic reasons that justify apologies to China, but an American citizen kowtowing to THE MURDER OF MEGAN MONTGOMERY AND THE DEATH OF JOURNALISM Here is the NBC News headline: “The state of Alabama took his gun away.When authorities gave it back, he shot and killed his wife.” Here is the sub-head: “Alabama authorities took his gun away after a violent domestic incident. Nine months later they gave it back, and he

used it

MORE AMERICAN IDOL ETHICS: ARE THE FANS OF THE SHOW REALLY I don’t know how the local news in your area is, but here in Houston, it is awful. I prefer watching paint dry. The local stories are a tiger wandering around a Northwest Houston neighborhood, apparently spirited away by some idiot out on bail for allegedly whacking his girlfriend; a grieving family whose mother was found dead in a local pond after having gone missing two months ago, and INCREDIBLY, A UNANIMOUS U.S. SUPREME COURT RULES AGAINST See? The government isn’t completely crazy. Not for the first time, the Supreme Court has emphatically sided with the rule of law, confounding the Biden Administration and such Democratic Party stars as Senators Mazi Hirono (D-Hawaii), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), and former DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla A “I MUST BE MISSING SOMETHING” ETHICS QUIZ: ARIZONA’S ←Morning Ethics Warm-Up, 6/7/2021: “The Masks Come Off At The Local 7-11” Edition AUTHENTIC FRONTIER GIBBERISH KILLS: THE GUN POLICY “Authentic Frontier Gibberish,” or AFG, named in honor of Gabby Johnson of “Blazing Saddles” fame, is the public phenomenon of solemn and meaningful-sounding word clouds designed to make the naive and the barely educated (that is, most of society) feel certain that they are in the presence of superior intellect when in fact they are in the thrall of either con artists or morons. NOW I ALMOST REGRET QUITTING TWITTER… I followed that twitter feed and everyone is a handwriting expert and the doubters are focusing on the bicycle standing in the driveway, assuming it was there all night. THE BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT’S ETHICS WILD HORSE WRECK The snail darter was more than just high-priced sentimentality and protecting a supposedly endangered species from extinction. It was an example of the EPA attempting to take lands without compensation to

the owners.

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OBSERVATIONS ON A TENDER, OBNOXIOUS, UNETHICAL SCREED April 26, 2020April 26, 2020 / Jack Marshall / 14

Comments

My original impulse was to post  this as an ethics quiz, with a heading like, “Is Bill Weir’s essay as bad as I think it is?” Bill Weir is CNN’s climate correspondent. His wife just gave birth to a son, for which Ethics Alarms gives him a hardy congratulations and will wait for its metaphorical cigar. However, Weir chose to use this life event for an astoundingly long, self-indulgent, and in several ways unethical post on CNN’s site headlined, “To my son, born in the time of coronavirus and climate change.” Read the thing, if you can stand it. Commenter OTHER BILL sent it to me with the query, “Is it ethical for this guy to have a child?” He was engaging in hyperbole, but the thrust of the question is valid. Here’s how the essay begins: > Against all odds you were conceived in a lighthouse, born during a > pandemic and will taste just enough of Life as We Knew It to resent > us when it’s gone. I’m sorry. I’m sorry we broke your sea and > your sky and shortened the wings of the nightingale. I’m sorry > that the Great Barrier Reef is no longer great, that we value Amazon > more than the Amazon and that the waterfront neighborhood where you > burble in my arms could be condemned by rising seas before you’re > old enough for a mortgage. > The scent of your downy crown makes my heart explode. The curl in > your Tic Tac toes fills me with enough love to power New York City. _Gack! _I’m sorry, I have to take a break. Continue reading →

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CAPTAIN CROZIER AND THE GHOST OF BILLY MITCHELL April 26, 2020April 26, 2020 / Jack Marshall / 11

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_Billy Mitchell, at the court martial he wanted…_ Why I didn’t think to include the tale of General Billy Mitchell in the Ethics Alarms posts regarding Captain Brett Crozier

,

the former commander of the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt who forfeited his job by going around the chain of command to protect his crew, I really don’t know. But it’s normal for people to forget about Mitchell, and I don’t understand that, either. He, like Crozier, was an unconventional Ethics Hero, and a crucial one. And he may well have saved the world. Do you not know the story of William Lendrum Mitchell, born December 29, 1879, died February 19, 1936? You should. Every American should. He grew up in Milwaukee., Wisconsin. At age 18 he enlisted as a private in the army, and by the age of 23 he had become  the youngest captain in the U.S. Army. It was a pattern; being a prodigy and trailblazer in the military came naturally to Mitchell. In 1913, at the age of 32, he became the youngest officer ever assigned to the General Staff of the War Department in Washington. At a time when most in the military considered the airplane a novelty, “a risky contraption” of little or no value in combat,  Mitchell immediately saw the potential of air power, and believed that planes represented the future of warfare. The United States had only fifty-four air-worthy planes  when it entered World War I in 1917, and only thirty-five air-worthy officers, including Mitchell, to lead them. Again he was a first, this time the first  American officer to fly over enemy lines. He organized the first all-American Air Squadron; one of his recruits, Eddie V. Rickenbacker, became a legend as  Mitchell moved his American air units to counter Manfried von Richthofen, the “Red-Baron.” When Germans planned to unleash a major ground offensive and the Allied commanders were desperate to learn where  it was being mounted, Mitchell volunteered to fly low over the enemy’s lines, and his daring mission discovered thousands of Germans concentrating close to the Marne River. Armed with Mitchell’s intelligence, the Allies launched a surprise attack on the German flank and scored a major victory. Mitchell’s solo reconnaissance flight was hailed as one of the most important aerial exploits of the war. Continue reading →

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SATURDAY ETHICS WARM-UP, 4/25/2020: THE QUIET BEFORE THE STORM April 25, 2020April 25, 2020 / Jack Marshall / 36

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_SOMETHING’S COMING._ (I’d have the West Side Story song up, but for some reason WordPress hasn’t been letting me embed videos lately.) Do you feel it? I sure

do…

1. OUR INCOMPETENT LEADERS, PART 645, 991. The proper anti-virus conduct as modeled by Nancy Pelosi on TV last week: take off your mask, wipe your nose with your hand, …and touch the podium. Members of both parties demonstrated similar Wuhan virus safety awareness:

2.  MEME WARS…

…and _this_ (from the Babylon Bee):

3.

YOU KNOW, I REALLY DON’T CARE WHAT SOMEONE LIKE THIS THINKS ABOUT ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION. In a review of a pro-illegal immigration book by illegal immigrant (OK, she’s a “Dreamer”) Karla Cornejo Villavicencio, we learn that, among other things, she’s mentally ill, and is a Ph.D candidate at Yale. Her book is also titled “The Undocumented Americans,” which is double dishonesty: “undocumented” is a cover word designed to deceive, and illegal immigrants are not “Americans.” QUICK DIVERSION: _Education Secretary Betsy DeVos announced that “Dreamers”—people brought to the U.S. illegally as children—cannot access emergency funding set aside for college students who are enduring disruptions in their education because of the pandemic, because grants may only be given to students who are eligible for federal aid under Title IV of the Higher Education Act, meaning U.S. citizens. Naturally, she is being attacked as cruel and

racist. _

_It is the correct, responsible, legal and ethical decision._ So she is laboring under emotional difficulties, a law-breaker herself, and a liar. That’s some expert you got there. She’s also not very bright, based on this statement from her book: Continue

reading →

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GOING RIGHT INTO THE SIGNATURE SIGNIFICANCE FILES: THE PRESIDENT’S CLAIMS HIS BLATHER ABOUT LIGHT AND DISINFECTANT TO CURE THE VIRUS WAS

“SARCASM”

April 25, 2020April 25, 2020 / Jack Marshall / 40

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_UGH._

President Donald Trump told reporters and the country yesterday that he was only testing the media when he suggested that using disinfectant and light to fight off the coronavirus was worth exploring. “I was asking a question sarcastically to reporters like you just to see what would happen,” he said. Does anyone believe that? Anyone? It’s not quite a Jumbo—_“What? I didn’t say that!”_—but it’s almost as outrageous. Now, the “Trump is a liar!” tropes are re-energized (that’s no big lie, but it’s exaggerated and hyped), and the President has nobody to blame but himself. My sister, who actually participates in a Hate Trump neighborhood group, sent me a musical parody, “The  Liar Sleeps Tonight” (it’s not bad) yesterday. I know what he was thinking: the news media did distort and misrepresent what he said, so “It was a test, and you flunked!” might have seemed like a good gambit. The flaw in that strategy is that the president’s  demeanor when he’s riffing is unmistakable by now.  The sarcasm excuse was desperate, and more importantly, needless.  Trump easily could have said that he was thinking out loud about some possibilities, and that most listeners understood that. What he said instead was stupid (and insulting), and, for what feels like the millionth time, handed a club to his critics. For the record, the rationalization the President chose in this case is #64, YOO’S RATIONALIZATION or “IT ISN’T WHAT IT IS.” Continue reading →

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END OF THE DAY ETHICS, 4/24/2020: A CURSE, A WHOREHOUSE, AND THE

GRIM REAPER

April 24, 2020April 24, 2020 / Jack Marshall / 27

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YAY.

_ANOTHER WEEKEND…_ 1. NAH, THERE’S NO NEWS MEDIA NARRATIVE COORDINATION! Twitchy has

pointed out

the remarkable conformity of language regarding the Joe Biden sexual assault accusation. Last week, CNN reported that Democrats are “grappling with questions” about Tara Reade’s allegations. This week: POLITICO: “The #MeToo movement is facing a new challenge: how to grapple with the allegations against Joe Biden without tearing itself apart.” JAKE TAPPER ON TWITTER: “Democrats grapple with questions about Tara Reade’s sexual assault allegation against Joe Biden…” JEREMY SCAHILL AT THE INTERCEPT: “My aim in writing this piece was to put into words what many principled people are grappling with right now, not to tell anyone what to do. Recognizing and understanding the problem helps us all decide what we believe is right…” MOTHER JONES: “Sexual Assault Advocates Are Grappling With the Allegations Against Joe Biden” All independent, objective journalists, of course…_talking points?_ What talking points? 2. THIS “SHARING A LIFE” CONCEPT SEEMS TO BE BEYOND YOU…over at

Social Q’s

a woman who is living with her boyfriend to ride out the pandemic complains, “He eats significantly more than I do, including some foods I don’t touch. Still, we split the grocery bill, and I am paying significantly more for food than usual. How should I handle this?” Columnist PHILLIP GALLANES’ advice is impeccably ethical: > Try stepping back and looking at the bigger picture…Sure, he eats > more than you, but are you twice as messy (while sharing cleaning > duties equally)? Do you watch three times as much Netflix (but split > the bill in half)? And I haven’t even touched on emotional labor > yet. ..if you want your partnership to survive even after we’re > set free again, consider all the contributions each of you makes. Nice try, Phil, but I’m guessing that question is _signature significance,_ and the relationship is doomed. Continue reading →

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COMMENT OF THE DAY: “YOU KNOW, HARVARD, WHEN YOU HAVE TO BE EMBARRASSED AND SHAMED INTO DOING WHAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN YOUR AUTOMATIC RESPONSE ANYWAY IF YOU HAD ANY DECENCY, IT’S TOO LATE TO

SAVE FACE.”

April 24, 2020

/ Jack Marshall / 1

Comment

_Veteran commenter TIM LEVIER comes to the defense (sort of) of both Harvard and nuance. _ _Here is his COMMENT OF THE DAY on the post, “YOU KNOW, HARVARD, WHEN YOU HAVE TO BE EMBARRASSED AND SHAMED INTO DOING WHAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN YOUR AUTOMATIC RESPONSE ANYWAY IF YOU HAD ANY DECENCY, IT’S TOO LATE TO SAVE FACE.”

_

> Can I play Devil’s Advocate here? (Maybe just devil’s > half-advocate.) I mean, I think it’s delicious that Harvard is > getting a first hand experience in “political correctness”, > “public shaming”, and “fake news” all in one fell swoop; but > this is an Ethics site and saying the truth should always be

> ethical.

>

> Harvard’s endowment is $38.3 billion, but what does that mean? > Endowments are donations intended not for the donation to be > “used” but for the donation to be “invested”. The investment > grows and pays income distributions to the target recipient. Sure, > Harvard has an endowment of $38.3 billion, but that generates an > annual distribution of roughly $1.9 billion. That’s a distribution > during “good times”. Any bets out there that the distribution > might crater this year?

>

> Let’s assume it doesn’t. The $1.9 billion distribution is > roughly 1/3rd of Harvard’s annual operating budget. That’s money > that they were counting on, budgeted, and spent. Continue reading

> →

>

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RATIONALIZATIONS FROM THE VICTIM OF A TRAGEDY April 24, 2020April 24, 2020 / Jack Marshall / 3

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A week ago, I briefly discussed the report on the 2017 death of major league pitcher Roy Halladay who crashed his plane into the Gulf of Mexico  on Nov. 7, 2017. The 13-page report said Halladay had 10 times the recommended level of amphetamine in his system, plus an antidepressant, a muscle relaxant, a sleep aid and morphine.  He was also attempting aerial acrobatics and stunt flying. Now his widow, Brandy Halladay, has issued a statement through the now Hall of Fame pitcher’s last team, the Philadelphia Phillies. She wrote, > “Yesterday’s NTSB report on Roy’s accident was painful for our > family, as it has caused us to relive the worst day of our lives. It > has reinforced what I have previously stated, that no one is > perfect. Most families struggle in some capacity and ours was no > exception. We respectfully ask that you not make assumptions or pass > judgment. Rather, we encourage you to hug your loved ones and > appreciate having them in your lives.” From one perspective, it seems unkind to be critical of the lament of a grieving family member in the wake of such a tragedy. From another—mine—I can’t let public endorsements of multiple rationalizations like that one pass. I just can’t, and I have an obligation as an ethicist not to. It’s a dirty job but someone has to do it: the reason so people make terrible decisions by defaulting to rationalizations rather than ethics is that the culture marinates them, day after day, in these excuses for bad conduct. After a lifetime of hearing the contrived arguments , most people accept such self-deceptions as true. In turn, they engage in conduct, or excuse conduct in others, that causes extensive harm. Continue reading →

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